Jack Dee, Tim Brooke Taylor, Graeme Garden, Barry Cryer and Jeremy Handy in I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue
I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue is the most listened-to comedy programme on British Radio. It regularly pulls an audience of about 2.5 million on Radio 4, a figure that would put it comfortably into the top 10 programmes on BBC2 or Channel 4.
The brainchild of Graeme Garden, the programme was devised as an alternative to I’m Sorry I’ll Read That Again, the chaotic sketch show that ran from 1964 to 1973 starring John Cleese, Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Jo Kendall and David Hatch. Graeme devised a way of turning the show into a game, which meant not having to write a weekly script and, in 1972, took the idea to David Hatch, at that time a producer in Light Entertainment Radio (later to be Controller of Radio 4 and Managing Director of BBC Network Radio).
Jazz legend Humphrey Lyttelton was the surprise choice for chairman. David Hatch recalled the conversation with Graeme: “What we already had was a scripted show which was like a composed piece of music and the notion was that we should go off-piste and not have words written down… and the equivalent to the composed piece of music was jazz. I think his name emerged over the third pint. I think we both said it together and then both realised how clever we were”.
With no script to rely on, the pilot show, recorded at the Playhouse Theatre, was a nerve-wracking experience for the cast. When asked in the pub afterwards if he thought that the pilot would ever be broadcast, David Hatch replied that it might go out on Boxing Day, after lunch, when everyone was very drunk. Fortunately, Tony Whitby, then Controller of Radio 4, liked what he heard and commissioned a series of six programmes. The first was broadcast on 11 April 1972 with panellists Graeme Garden, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Bill Oddie and Jo Kendall.
In the first series, Humphrey alternated the chairmanship with Barry Cryer, before making the role his own. One of Jon Naismith's innovations as producer was to bring in a script writer for the introduction and links between rounds. Iain Pattinson has been writing the chairman’s gags for the past sixteen years.
Comedian and satirist Willie Rushton joined the panel in 1974. He became an entrenched regular and much-loved Clue panellist until his untimely death in December 1996, just two days after recording his final show. Willie’s "off the wall" sense of humour and razor-sharp wit was an essential element in the success of Clue. To this day, nobody has been brought in to replace him. Over the past few years, Tim Brooke-Taylor has been partnered by a host of talented comedians, including Stephen Fry, Paul Merton, Tony Hawks, Andy Hamilton, Linda Smith, Phill Jupitus, Sandi Toksvig, Ross Noble, Bill Bailey, Rob Brydon, Harry Hill, Jack Dee, Victoria Wood and of course, the show’s most regular non regular - Jeremy Hardy. I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue can claim to have introduced Jeremy’s unique singing voice to an unsuspecting nation.
Many games have featured in the programme over the last 30 years, the most famous of which is ‘Mornington Crescent’. The game's rules are notoriously complex and listeners who write in seeking an explanation of the game, are usually referred to N.F. Stovold's ‘Mornington Crescent: Rules & Origins’, now out of print. ‘One Song To The Tune Of Another’ is another favourite round, in which the panellists have to sing the words of one tune to the music of another, accompanied by the show's pianist, Colin Sell. He joined Clue in 1974 and "soon discovered that accompanying people who can't sing well was part of the joke; I learnt to stop worrying about the microphones, the audience in the theatre and at home, and any sort of personal standards.”
Pneumatic scorer Samantha has been the focus of innuendo for more years than it is polite to mention, ever ready to score just in case points are ever awarded. There have been two other scorers in the past, "The Lovely Monica" and "The Lovely Sven", but it is Samantha who remains the teams’ firm favourite.
In its remarkable thirty-eight years, the show has picked up virtually every prize for Radio Comedy going - three coveted Sony Gold Awards, a British Comedy Award for Best Comedy Programme, British Press Guild and Voice of the Viewer & Listener Awards for Best Radio Programme, two Television & Radio Industries Club Awards as Radio Programme of the Year and two Spoken Word awards.
There are eleven “I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue” CDs available on the BBC Audiobooks label. These are available from larger books and record stores and as internet downloads via iTunes. Altogether have sold over 800,000 copies, making them the best selling CDs of any radio show still being broadcast today. There are also boxed sets, special editions and ‘Live’ recordings with the ad-libs goofs and retakes all included. The most recent of these include In Search of Mornington Crescent, all three series of Hamish and Dougal, the 2007 Christmas show Humph in Wonderland and Chairman Humph: a tribute.
The I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue teams have also brought out several books: The Official Limerick Collection, comprising the best of the Limerick round; The Almost Totally Complete I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, featuring edited highlights drawn from 30 years of the show; two best-selling texts devoted to the game that ISIHAC made famous: The Little Book of Mornington Crescent, and Stovold’s Mornington Crescent Almanac 2002; The Uxbridge English Dictionary, and The New Uxbridge English Dictionary, a collection of some of the funniest “new definitions” of words; Lyttelton’s Britain, a collection of Iain Pattinson’s show introductions for Humphrey, and The Doings of Hamish and Dougal: ‘You’ll Have Had Your Tea’, the collected scripts of the spin-off series of the same name.
During the 2008 stage tour, two performances at the Lowry Centre, Salford were recorded, and have been edited to form the DVD: I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue: Live On Stage. This is the only complete visual record of the show. Three weeks after the Salford recording, and after 37 years as the programme’s chairman, Humphrey Lyttelton died.
The devastating loss of Humph was deeply felt by the fans and everyone involved in the programme, and for a time there were conflicting feelings about the future of the show. The public response was bound to influence any decision, and at first there was a flurry of blogging that the show couldn't possibly continue without Humph at its heart. Then, slowly but surely, thousands of emails started to pour in, begging for Clue's return. This overwhelming response confirmed the decision of the BBC and the show’s regulars that I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue should go on. In June 2009, after a year’s break for everyone to cope with their loss, the first of a six-programme run was broadcast, with not one but three comedy heavyweights drafted in to the chair: Stephen Fry, Jack Dee and Rob Brydon. In January 2010 the BBC confirmed that Jack Dee would become the permanent host of I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue.
Event info for I'm Sorry I Haven't Got A Clue
